Tag: life onboard

A Regional Meeting of Asia’s leading seafaring nations focused on the situation that many seafarers face in case of a maritime accident. As a result, the nations promised to advance effective implementation of the IMO and International Labor Organization (ILO) agreed Guidelines on the Fair Treatment of Seafarers. The meeting took place in Manila on November 13.

InterManager, the international trade association for the shipmanagement sector, has launched a campaign to stimulate seafarers to think about safety issues when working in enclosed spaces and encourage them to identify and share with InterManager measures which they believe would reduce risks.

North P&I Club has presented its new ‘Mind Matters’ campaign, which includes a confidential helpline for crew. The helpline is provided in partnership with the International Seafarer’s Welfare and Assistance Network. The new campaign targets to raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing at sea.

The International Transport Workers Federation has commissioned the Yale University to carry out a research investigating seafarers' mental health issues, to raise awareness for the mental health wellness and wellbeing of seafarers, by understanding which risk factors are associated with seafarer stress, depression and anxiety.

Seafarers would be subject to the rules described in the Working Conditions Directive if it is submitted to the European Parliament. So, there is potential for additional financial and administrative burdens for the maritime industry, Danish Shipping believes.

According to the Marshall Islands, Port State Control deficiencies are being issued, mostly in Belgium, over cadet working hours. Namely, most training agreements do not include overtime, however some inspections have showed that cadets are often working excessive overtime hours. 

ICS and the International Transport Workers’ Federation have released new 'Guidelines for implementing the Welfare aspects of the Maritime Labour Convention. MLC 2006 aims to ensure worldwide protection and enforcement of the rights of seafarers and to provide decent working and living conditions for seafarers.

Danish health and safety company CONOVAH will conduct a new project, focusing on loneliness at sea and how changes such as the role of managers and new technologies affect it. It will also try to identify the factors that lead to loneliness at sea. The project is running from 1 October 2018 until 31 March 2020.

Dr. Phil Sharples, Senior Medical Director, UnitedHealthcare Global Medical, discussed how mainstream healthcare is embracing technology to deliver higher quality medical care and how some of these initiatives could apply to the maritime industry.

The Kenyan government is looking to create a wage standard as well as regulations to protect Kenyan seafarers from exploitation by the international companies. Namely, Kenya will establish regulations for minimum wages to improve employment conditions.